


Living in the Moment

by DarkFairytale



Series: Can't Trevor and Philip be (more than) friends? [2]
Category: Travelers (TV)
Genre: Age Difference, Dating, Developing Relationship, Falling In Love, Fluff, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Is not an issue, M/M, Philip is also a cinnamon roll and must be protected, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, They are just too cute, Trevor is a cinnamon roll and must be protected
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 06:30:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13382139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkFairytale/pseuds/DarkFairytale
Summary: Trevor’s life was his last life. He would live and finally die in the 21st. And while he was not afraid of dying for the mission, it also meant that he was determined to make his last life count. Philip had only lived two lives in less than a full human lifetime and still had not even had a chance to trulyliveyet. Together, they make that happen.





	Living in the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> I had some super nice comments on my first Trevor/Philip fic _Sunshine and Roses_ https://archiveofourown.org/works/13205208 so I thought I would write a follow-up for you all (though Sunshine and Roses is not essential reading for this one). Hope you enjoy!
> 
> There was a request that I write from Trevor's POV too, so this fic has half-and-half Trevor and Philip POV. 
> 
> Spoilers for all of Season 2.

Traveler 0115 had lived several lives. As a test subject for the early stages of the Traveler programme his consciousness had been moved from one host to another to another until another human lifetime had passed him by, he had watched his sons die of old age and had existed for well over a century.

Trevor’s life was his last life. He would live and finally die in the 21st. Maybe it was because of the amount of times he had seen the lifeless eyes of his previous body staring back at him, or maybe it was because of how long he had lived and how many of those he had loved he had seen die, but Trevor was not afraid of his own death; if the Director asked him to give his life he would. But that meant that he was also determined to make his last life count.

Philip had only lived two lives in less than a full human lifetime. In the first he had been selected, watched, moulded as a Historian for the Traveler project. He had never truly known freedom. His second life had landed him in the body of a drug addict and he alone had to carry the burden of knowledge that he could not share with the team. Trevor believed that Philip _was_ in many ways afraid to die, but that was probably because he had not even had a chance to truly _live_ yet.

Philip spent a lot of time in Ops; he lived, worked and ate there. He did not get out much and outside of the team, Ray was his only friend. But that did not mean that Philip was not a really great friend. Trevor knew that first hand. Other than attending school, the vast amount of Trevor’s time was spent in Philip’s company. They could work in comfortable silence, they could talk and joke around, they could keep Carly entertained by picking songs. Trevor would even stay overnight in the loft sometimes, but not often, because he did not want Gary asking too many questions.

Trevor was living his last life to the full, and although the mission came first and he had dedicated his last life to that, in his free time the place that he mainly chose to spend it was in Ops, in Philip’s company. And Poppy’s, of course. Trevor was still fascinated by Poppy. He could sit for hours watching her wander around her enclosure, and sometimes he would look up and see Philip’s gaze fly away from him and back to his computer screen, as though he was afraid of Trevor knowing that as much as Trevor watched Poppy, Philip watched Trevor. But Trevor did know, and he did not mind, in fact, it made his heart flutter in a way it hadn’t done in decades.

So, the day that he presented Philip with a flower and Philip had offered to take him to a zoo or botanical garden sometime - seeing as Trevor adored the natural world so much - Trevor had been bold and asked if it was going to be a date. Philip had not seemed to mind that idea. So they gave it a go.

It wasn’t technically breaking Protocol 5, because if Philip and Trevor could logistically be friends, their hosts not too far apart in age, then Trevor saw no reason why they couldn’t date as well. They had one last life to live, after all. Philip had saved Trevor’s life after the incident with Abigail and the Galston mission, so Trevor was going to enjoy the time Philip had gifted him. With Philip.

They ended up going to a zoo. Trevor found himself conflicted; sad to see them in cages, but glad to be seeing them at all. But he had to admit that he found it fascinating, being so close to lions and giraffes and zebra and a whole pen of Poppys. He would grab Philip’s wrist and pull him along every time something new caught his attention, expressing excitement before questioning his ethics of the whole thing, and Philip would call him a big child, but would follow willingly, smiling his own private smile. Trevor liked making Philip smile, and when he laughed it was like the sun rising, because his eyes would light up with it too and for a moment all his burdens of being a Historian seemed to lift from him. Trevor was becoming increasingly happy to be Philip’s distraction.

It was different with Philip than it was with Rene. With Rene, Trevor was very aware of his age and did not like it when she touched him, not because she was not a beautiful girl, but because he would feel guilty for lying to her, for not wanting to spend time with her or wanting to be wanted by her. It had not been a hardship to break up with her; she was a growing woman, learning new things and making new friends and she would move on from him, just as she would have had to had Trevor met his real fate in the illegal fight.

Unlike with Rene and other humans of the 21st, Traveler 3326 was older than his host, too, and as a fellow Traveler knew exactly who Trevor was. Philip knew more about their team mates than anyone else, which meant he knew more about Trevor than anyone but Trevor, and he still seemed to like him anyway, and not mind his real age. Trevor didn’t feel as old as his age suggested, but that was maybe because he had lived in more youthful bodies after he had left his first one.  He had never truly gotten ‘old’, despite his years of life.

He felt like a youth, going on his first date with a handsome young man with long blonde hair and a nose piercing. This was his first first date in decades. He knew that Philip was still hurt from being used by Jenny, but that was ok because Trevor wanted to take it slowly anyway, and enjoy the moment. Enjoy living it.

“So,” Philip said, as he drove them back towards Trevor’s house. “I definitely made the right call about the zoo.”

“It just reminds you how incredible the world was – is –,” Trevor corrected himself, “And how many beautiful creatures we are working to protect by changing the course of the future.”

Philip smiled, but it was flimsy and did not reach his eyes. Trevor glanced at him, but Philip’s eyes were fixed on the road, knuckles a little white where he held the wheel a little tighter.

“There’s a lot more that has to happen to get there, huh?” Trevor asked quietly.

“More than you could even imagine,” Philip replied.

“I know that you aren’t allowed to talk to me about those things…”

“It’s hard, sometimes, Trev,” Philip admitted. “And it’s hard because there’s only so much I can do to change things, like with your coach, because it was going to happen anyway.” He finally looked at Trevor, and his smile was small but a little more genuine. “But it all leads to us protecting the world you love so much, so it’ll be worth it.”

“It will be worth it,” Trevor promised. “And in the meantime, we can enjoy ourselves as much as we can.”

“Yeah,” Philip agreed. He blinked, apparently processing that thought, and Trevor wondered how much Philip had ever before allowed himself to enjoy himself. “Yeah we can.”

Philip pulled the van up a street away from Trevor’s house, just to be on the safe side. Trevor barely thought about it before leaning over to press a quick kiss on the corner of Philip’s mouth before throwing open the van door and leaping out.

“See you at Ops tomorrow?” Trevor asked through the open window to a startled but pleased looking Philip.

“Yeah,” Philip said, meeting Trevor’s gaze and rewarding Trevor with a very real smile, one of the kind that reached his eyes. “See you tomorrow.”

Trevor grinned, knocking against the door in a farewell before heading home.

***

Trevor spent so much time at Ops before he and Philip went on their first date that none of the team questioned him spending even more time there, if they even noticed. They all had their own lives. But Philip only had Ops, Poppy and the team, and although Trevor also had school, Grace and his parents, that was all; his girlfriend and his old friends had distanced themselves and his Protocol 5 priorities were changing, as, he rationalised, the life of any young adults could.

“You know you are supposed to be at parties getting drunk on overly alcoholic punch, right?” Philip asked him one day, collapsing down next to him on the couch and curling into the arm Trevor wrapped around his shoulder. “Not hanging about in a garage with an ex-college ex-junkie?”

“It’s illegal for someone my age to drink alcohol,” Trevor reminded him.

Philip snorted and nudged him with his shoulder. Trevor grinned.

“I wouldn’t know,” Philip reminded him, “I only take heroin and eye drops, remember?”

Trevor frowned, “Well not anymore you don’t. And besides,” he snuggled a little more into the couch, because he could. Philip was warm and always smelled nice. “I would much rather be hanging around in a garage with you than at some party that does not matter.”

“Huh,” Philip said quietly.

“What?”

“I guess I just realised that I matter to you.”

“Of course you do,” Trevor pulled away a little bit to look Philip in the eye. “You matter to the team and to Poppy, and you really matter to me. A lot.”

Trevor was taken by surprise when Philip leant forward and kissed him. It was the first proper kiss they had shared. They had been taking their physical contact at an unhurried pace, but Trevor was not going to deny that he was very pleased, and flattered, that Philip had made the first move. It was a slow moving of lips, as unhurried as they had been taking the rest of their budding relationship, and when Trevor opened his eyes, he found Philip staring back at him.

“You ok?” Trevor asked.

“I’m ok,” Philip murmured. He reached up and dragged a hand over the short crop of Trevor’s hair. He laughed breathlessly, “I’m more than ok.”

“Good,” Trevor said, gaze trailing back down to Philip’s very distracting lips a moment before Philip kissed him again.

They were still on the couch an hour later. Trevor was supposed to be doing essay research but was growing sleepy from being lounged against Philip’s chest, with Philip’s arms resting comfortably around his waist.

“You should mention that,” Philip murmured in his ear, pointing at a sentence in Trevor’s book. “It’s important.”

“Important now or important in the future?” Trevor countered. “Because if I start making claims to consequence of a cause that isn’t going to come about for another few decades then…”

Philip huffed and poked him in the ribs. “Important now. I’m not supposed to share facts of the near-future to even you, let alone your teachers.”

Trevor laughed and glanced up at Philip’s face. The dimmed light of the room was catching in the blonde strands of Philip’s hair.

“You are beautiful, you know that don’t you?” Trevor asked him. It was a little out of the blue, but it suddenly struck him that Philip ought to know it. “All of you; the mental and the physical.”

“If you were saying that to anyone other than a Traveler they would think you were weird,” Philip grinned, looking pleased. “But consider me incredibly flattered.” His arms tightened around Trevor’s waist.

“I think it’s important to let people know that you like them for who they are as well as for how they look,” Trevor shrugged.

“Because you have had enough faces to know that it’s nice to hear that it’s _you_ that people find attractive?”

Philip was far too astute, sometimes. Sometimes Trevor wondered how much Philip truly knew about him and his past – his past in the future – but he knew that it was breaking Protocol to ask. So he didn’t.

Trevor could not think of a response, so he just nodded.

“Well you will be pleased to know,” Philip said without hesitation, his hand finding the one of Trevor’s that was not holding the textbook, “That I find your soul and your body equally remarkable.”

Trevor could not help but smile up at him. “Thank you Philip.”

Philip was watching him in that fond way he sometimes did that made Trevor’s heart feel things he hadn’t allowed himself to feel in a long time. Allowing himself to care like that for anyone had come to be too cruel, as he watched the people he love die one by one of old age and sickness.  But that was before the 21st, his last life, and meeting Philip.

Then, before either of them could say anything more, the quiet alarm that warned Philip of people approaching sounded and they had to hurriedly detangle themselves, which they did so successfully before MacLaren opened the door and entered the room.

***  


As secret relationships tend to do, it did not remain secret forever. But it wasn’t the team that confronted it first; they remained none the wiser. It ended up being Gary, of all people.

“I bumped into Rene in town today,” Gary said one evening, while Trevor was helping his mother prepare the dinner.

Trevor did not think anything of it, continuing to chop the carrot on the board in front of him without hesitation. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I said it had been a long time since I’d seen her and she told me that you and her aren’t dating anymore? That you haven’t been for a few months?”

“That’s right,” Trevor replied, starting on his next carrot.

“Oh honey, I’m sorry,” his mother said from the other side of the counter, where she was peeling potatoes. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Trevor blinked, before remembering that this kind of relationship drama was supposed to be a life-or-death situation for teens of the 21st. Rene had displayed as much when she had called him saying that there was an ‘emergency’, when all she had really wanted to do was discuss their relationship.

“There wasn’t much to tell,” Trevor said. “She outgrew our relationship because she is growing up and moving on to new things. I understood because I felt the same. It was a mutual, amicable split.”

His mother blinked at him. “When did my boy grow into such a sensible, considerate young man?”

Trevor smiled, putting a hand on his mother’s shoulder as he passed her to push the carrots from his chopping board into the pot waiting to be boiled.

Gary did not seem so pleased. “You are moving on to new things,” Gary summarised. “Trying new things.”

Trevor frowned. “If you like.”

“Like that boy that keeps giving you lifts in his van?”

Trevor tensed up without intending to and he knew Gary saw it. “Pardon?”

“Older kid with the long hair and the piercing. The one that drives you around in his van. You thought that I wouldn’t find out?”

Trevor looked from Gary’s accusatory face to his mother’s confused one.

“You mean Philip?” Trevor asked. “He’s the guy that I’m working in that garage with, you know; the mechanic experience I’ve been getting?”

“Is that all you’ve been getting?”

Trevor’s mouth dropped open and his mother exclaimed, “Gary! What on earth are you suggesting…”

“I’m suggesting that Trevor might be spending too much time with someone who is clearly a bad influence on him.”

“A bad influence?” Trevor frowned incredulously, knowing of his host’s previous antisocial behaviour.

“The personality transplant for one. You were supposed to be a football star, kid. You were popular, going to parties, you had a girlfriend. And now all you do is spend your time with that boy ‘from the garage’.”

Trevor sighed, and put his chopping knife down. “If you are suggesting that I’m gay, Gary…”

“Well are you?”

Trevor looked at the furious face of his father and at the shocked one of his mother.

“Would it matter if I was?” he asked, feeling anger beginning to bubble in his veins, but determined to remain the better person.

In the future sexual orientation and gender did not matter. It wasn’t of any consequence. You loved who you loved and by the year that Trevor left it as a Traveler, you were just glad that you had managed to find someone and hoped you did not lose them to starvation, illness or shelter incidents. He had had a wife, once, and kids. He had had male and female partners. It did not matter. It was one of the only things that he preferred in the future to the 21st; people’s lack of hate towards other people. Unfortunately in this case, he was in the 21st and unfortunately, Gary was one of those people that did not seem to like the idea of his only son being anything other than heterosexual.

“It would determine whether or not you stayed in my house,” Gary said, red with anger. “No son of mine is…”

“No,” Trevor stopped him abruptly. He narrowed his eyes, clenched his fists, but stood his ground. “No son of yours.”

“Get out of my house.”

Trevor’s mother gasped. “Gary!”

But Trevor had already started striding towards the door. He did not need to collect anything special; he had a change of clothes and spare necessities at Ops.

“Trevor where are you going?!” His mother cried after him.

“I’m sorry mum,” Trevor said. “I’m sorry I’ve caused this. I hope you enjoy dinner, if you can, and that you’ll let me back into your lives one day, if I can be a son of yours again.”

He left the house, and neither of his parents chased after him.

He walked to Ops hoping that it would help him get rid of some of the anger and pure frustration, but if anything it only intensified the longer he thought about it. He hit the buzzer.

“Trev?” Philip said over the speaker, before the door clicked open.

Trevor stormed into Ops and Philip appeared in front of him. “Trevor?” Philip asked again, eyes searching Trevor’s face. “Are you ok?”

“Not really,” Trevor said, his voice sounding even rougher than it normally did. “Gary kicked me out. Can I stay with you?”

“Of course,” Philip said without hesitation. “Why did he kick you out?”

“He accused me of being gay. He must have seen us together in the van. I just can’t understand how there can still be this kind of hatred in the 21st, sometimes. The future had a lot of bad things but it never had that…”

“Trev,” Philip soothed. He took hold of Trevor’s upper arms and stopped his pacing. “Trev, it’s ok. We will figure it out and in the meantime you can stay here as long as you need.”

“Thanks,” Trevor said, pushing a knuckle in his eye to stop himself from getting unprofessionally emotional; he had a lot of past relationships and lost loves running through his mind.

“Hey,” Philip caught Trevor’s hand and pulled him into a hug that Trevor sank into. “It’s ok. It will be nice to have some company here full-time again and you can make sure that I get to sleep at a normal time like you did last time.”

The first time Trevor had asked Philip if he could crash at Ops, back before they had properly become friends as well as team mates, he had seen Philip sitting at his computer screen at all hours of the night and looking tired and suffering as he had fought his heroin addiction. He had gotten Philip snapping at him angrily on several nights when Trevor had demanded Philip go to bed and sleep, but Philip had always eventually gone, and always looked so much better for it in the morning. Someone that beautiful should not ever be so tired and burdened and withdrawn and Trevor was glad that Philip was finally getting better.

Philip moved back to look in Trevor’s eyes.

“Your spare stuff is still where you left it in the loft. I can get you some bedding…”

Trevor shifted, a little nervous, but still too bold to back down. “Can I sleep in yours with you?”

“Yeah, Trev,” Philip smiled his soft, happy smile and Trevor immediately felt infinitely better. “You can.”

*********

Philip woke up with Trevor in his bed for the first time. They had been taking it slowly so they had, up until that point, never slept in the same bed. They had kissed and cuddled, but they had been leaving any close, sexual interactions until they both felt ready; it had taken Philip a long time to get over being used by Jenny, and from what Trevor had told Philip, Trevor was learning to allow himself to feel for someone romantically again. There had been no rush because they had time to let it all develop slowly and enjoy the moment, the build. Enjoy living in the moment, as Trevor liked to say. That had meant that Trevor had never really stayed the whole night if they weren’t working on a mission-related project, and they had never shared a bed.

Philip immediately decided that he liked having Trevor there. Trevor was a cuddler, and his limbs were wrapped and tangled around Philip, his head resting right next to Philip’s on the pillow as he carried on sleeping. It made Philip feel wanted and it made him feel warm in his chest, to have someone to hold and to hold him in return.

He turned his head to inspect Trevor’s face, which was relaxed in sleep, his eyelashes long and his lips parted a little as he breathed. He looked so soft and young and enchanting. And yet he had a wise soul of someone who had lived for so long.

Philip had had Historian updates on his teammates, not that he was allowed to tell them, but it meant that he understood Trevor even better for it. At the beginning he had imagined Trevor’s host body being occupied by an old man; a man of well over a century old. But he came to learn, to understand that Traveler 0115 had lived in several hosts and that he had never truly _been_ old. Trevor was wise beyond his hosts’ years, yes, but Traveler 0115 had only ever been as young as the host he was living in. It made Trevor sensible, but boyishly charming at the same time; a beautiful contradiction of stubborn fire and carefree sunshine.  He was still childish and youthful and so different, such a paradox from any other human in the entire world, and its future, that Philip did not think about Trevor’s age anymore. It had never really bothered him, but now he barely thought of it at all. Besides, Philip was older than his own host, too. They both had different faces from the lives that they had lived before and Philip had decided that he was more than happy with following Trevor’s policy of living in the moment.

And, to be fair, it wasn’t just them that were investing in their current lives. The whole team were becoming more absorbed and devoted to their new lives, to the point of potentially compromising their true mission; there had been a hell of a lot of work to do to cover up the incident with Vincent Ingram and the video confessions, and the team were still trying to make amends with their hosts’ significant others, family and friends. Philip hadn’t of course, a few words over a drink and an envelope of cash to Ray had fixed any issues they had had, and aside from that, Philip hadn’t had anybody else until now. Now, he supposed, _his_ significant other was Trevor.

Philip was a little afraid, but totally exhilarated, of how fast he was falling. His addictions were not as much of a struggle anymore; Trevor was his distraction, his new focus.

He traced the curve of Trevor’s hairline with his fingertips, watching him closely.

He had thought Jenny had wanted him, had cared, had maybe even loved him, but it had all been a Faction lie. He had been used. He hadn’t truly realised that until he had started falling for Trevor, spending even more time with him and going on dates with him. Trevor never wanted anything from him, never pushed him into doing anything or taking anything or pretending to be someone that he wasn’t. Trevor wanted to spend time with Philip because he liked him, as he had done since the very beginning of their time in the 21st.

Trevor’s eyes slowly blinked open and he took a moment to focus on Philip, giving him a sleepy smile.

“Hey,” Trevor said, and his voice was even more gravelly in waking and Philip decided that he really liked that voice.

“Morning,” Philip replied, “Sorry I woke you.”

“It’s ok,” Trevor said, curling into Philips body even more. “So long as we don’t have to get up yet.”

“Not for an hour or so. The boss texted and said we all needed to be at Ops by nine and it’s not a school day for you, so…”

“Mmm,” Trevor hummed in agreement. “I like Saturdays,” he added.

“Most high school kids do. Most humans do.”

Trevor grinned at him, before leaning forward to kiss him, soft and warm.

“I never thought I’d find anybody in the 21st,” Philip found himself sharing quietly into the space between them on the pillow, still thinking about the team and Trevor and their hosts’ important others. “I never thought past the mission, really. I still don’t really have anybody outside of the team.”

“But now you have me,” Trevor said, so naturally, so contentedly.

“And now I have you,” Philip agreed.

***

Over the next few days things did not improve between Trevor and Gary.  His mother got in touch with him, though, and they arranged to meet for coffee without Gary knowing. Trevor had gone out looking a little nervous, but when he returned he looked much happier.

“She says she will love and support me no matter what,” Trevor said. “She’s working on things with Gary.”

Philip pushed away from his computer screen and spun his chair to look at him. “That’s great, Trev.”

Trevor shifted, looking a little apologetic. “She wants to meet you.”

Philip blinked. “She does? But Protocol 5…”

Trevor shrugged. “I thought about that. But I guess this _is_ our Protocol 5 now, Phil.”

“Oh,” Philip said, thinking about the time MacLaren had gotten pissed off at him when he had turned up at MacLaren and Kathryn’s door and spoken to her. Kat would probably punch him if he turned up at her door now, seeing as MacLaren still wasn’t welcome. But Trevor’s parents had not been involved with Ingram’s vengeful revealing of their true identities, so as far as Trevor’s mum was concerned, Trevor was still Trevor and she was just going to be meeting her son’s boyfriend. “Sure, we could do that.”

“It would mean a lot to me,” Trevor said. “She has come to mean a lot to me.”

“Then I would love to,” Philip said with a smile.

Philip and Trevor had sex for the first time that night. They had been taking it slow to get to that point, but nothing about their first time together could be considered slow. They stumbled towards Philip’s bed, frantic kisses as hands grabbed at waists and necks and faces before they were tugging at and pulling off clothes. They collapsed onto the bed, Trevor landing on top of Philip, but catching himself on muscled arms at the last second. Philip groaned when Trevor slotted a thigh between his, smoothing his hands up Philip’s body and down his arms to clasp his fingers, moving Philip’s hands up to press to the mattress on either side of his head, before dropping down to kiss him, hot and open. Philip pressed up into that trim, muscled body and melted.

Eventually Trevor freed one of Philip’s hands so that he could brush away the stray strands of hair that had fallen into Philip’s eyes and Philip took advantage of his freed hand, cupping Trevor’s face, using his thumb to push Trevor’s bottom lip, and Trevor’s lips automatically parted, drawing a pleased moan from Philip. Trevor was staring at Philip like he was mesmerised, and Philip used his distraction to unexpectedly flip them, straddling Trevor’s hips and effectively pinning him instead. Trevor just grinned up at him, flushed and trusting and pliant, until he wasn’t again and they commenced a constant battle to outdo the other with mouths on skin, and with lips or hands around cocks and seeing who could get the other to moan loudest, they laughed breathlessly into each other’s mouths, and with sweat-shiny skin they moved together.

***

Philip did go out to meet Trevor’s mum. He wore a smart dark grey shirt and jeans, his hair pulled back into a ponytail. He looked smart, and Trevor certainly approved, if his lingering gazes were anything to go by.

Mrs Holden turned out to be a really nice woman, who seemed to take a shine to Philip instantly. He remained polite and smiled and spoke in all the right places. Trevor told his mother how he and Philip had met when Trevor had gotten his ‘work experience’ in the ‘garage’; his excuse for spending so many days and evenings away from home. She asked Philip about himself and he told her that he worked in mechanics and computers, and that Trevor clearly had a flair for mechanics and engineering despite being 'new' to it, which had Trevor smirking and his mother beaming. She did not seem to mind the slight age gap between them - Trevor was almost eighteen and Philip was in his early twenties - and expressed that Philip seemed to be a good influence on Trevor. It was amusing to hear, as in reality it was entirely the opposite, what with Trevor’s honest nature and Philip’s past drug abuse.

They parted on good terms, with Mrs Holden telling Trevor that she was still trying to get Gary to come around. She told Philip that it had been nice to meet him and gave Trevor a hug before they left, which left Trevor quiet and contemplative on the walk home. Philip didn’t ask what was bothering him, but he did reach out his hand, that Trevor took without hesitation. Trevor did not seem to care if anyone saw them together. And while Philip was a little concerned that if Trevor did get seen by someone from his school that he could end up dealing with bullying, he also knew that Trevor and Grace would sort that shit out in a heartbeat.

Trevor did not let go of his hand.

***

The team found out eventually. It was bound to happen. It just happened when Philip and Trevor were least expecting it.

They had had a late night hacking into some secure government sites for a mission and eventually the pair of them had passed out Philip’s bed.

The next morning Carly and MacLaren found them in Philip’s bed. Philip had been asleep on his back, his arm under Trevor’s head, and Trevor had been sprawled around him.

Trevor had woken up first and his exclamation of “Umm…oops?” had woken Philip with a start.

Philip clocked Carly and MacLaren standing at the foot of the bed before throwing an arm over his eyes.

“Goddamn it, I wish it had been Marcy,” he muttered.

“I want you dressed and out in two minutes,” MacLaren said. He did not sound pleased.

Philip peered from under his arm as MacLaren stormed out and Carly raised an eyebrow at them with an assessing gaze before following.

Philip felt Trevor’s head drop onto Philip’s shoulder and he huffed into the skin. “I think we are in trouble,” Trevor said in his rough morning voice.

Philip turned his head to press his lips to Trevor’s head and stared at the spot where MacLaren and Carly had just been standing. Yes, they certainly were.

***

It was a little like children being scalded by a parent, the way that MacLaren made them sit on the couch as he paced in front of them, Carly and Marcy perched on stools nearby watching the whole thing with interest.

It reminded Philip of the time they had been out on a mission out in the wilderness, and someone they had met on the way had asked MacLaren if Trevor was his son. It had been amusing, so for the next few days Marcy, Carly, Trevor and Philip had pretended to be a family camping together, telling anybody that enquired that MacLaren was the father, Trevor his son, Carly MacLaren’s girlfriend, seeing as she always rode shot-gun in the van, and Philip and Marcy MacLaren’s niece and nephew. MacLaren had disliked it greatly. But he did like to unintentionally father them sometimes, and they were certainly getting a parental telling-off right at that moment.

“Between the two of you,” MacLaren was saying, “You have already broken, or tried to break, our most important protocols…”

“Except Protocol 4,” Trevor said, almost automatically, and Philip did not know whether Trevor had intended to make a dig at MacLaren, after what had happened with Kathryn and MacLaren’s baby, or not. Trevor could be terribly blunt sometimes. They all could.

Still, it was true. It wasn’t like Trevor and Philip had gotten anyone pregnant, or could procreate with each other.

“Except Protocol 4,” MacLaren agreed, looking more annoyed at the interruption than anything else.

Carly was smirking, clearly processing that statement in context to a relationship between two men, and Philip decided it was best not to look at her.

“And after you have already broken the majority of protocols, you then decide to start a relationship with each other? That could risk breaking every protocol…”

“Except Protocol 4,” Trevor pointed out again. His eyes were hard and Philip took a hold of his wrist in a silent warning not to push his luck.

“No, Trevor,” MacLaren said through gritted teeth. “Not Protocol 4. But you will risk breaking our most important protocols, particularly 1, 2 and 5. And that is why this has to stop.”

“Sorry boss,” Trevor said, “But I’m not going to do that.”

MacLaren’s angry gaze flicked to Philip. “Philip?”

Philip shook his head stubbornly, “We don’t have to stop and we aren’t. You can’t act all high and mighty on this when between the three of you you have also broken every protocol and bent the rules. You and Kathryn were going to have a baby, boss, you love her and put her before missions. Marcy does the same for David, and Carly will do anything for her son…”

“That’s Protocol 5,” Carly said. Philip wasn’t convinced. He knew how much Carly had come to love Jeffrey Jr.

“And this _is_ our Protocol 5,” Trevor said, looking at the team as though daring them to question him. “One; the mission comes first. We know that, we are both Travelers and understand the importance of putting the mission first no matter what. Two; we can’t jeopardize our cover because we know who each other are and we don’t talk about the future we came from, only our present. Four; we can’t reproduce. Protocol 3 and 6 don’t apply to relationships and five; in the absence of direction, we are maintaining our hosts’ lives. We aren’t breaking any protocol.”

“What about leaving the future where we left it?” MacLaren said, “Carly and I…”

“That was interfering with your Protocol 5, so you both chose to leave that in the future,” Philip argued. “It doesn’t concern us.”

“But Trevor, you have been staying here?” Marcy put in quietly, “You said your parents kicked you out?”

“Gary did. Just like a lot of your loved ones kicked you all out after Ingram,” Trevor said, without much sympathy. “There is nothing in our Protocol 5s that state that Philip and I cannot not be friends or know each other in our hosts’ lives. We are similar ages. We were friends in our Protocol 5 before this and you had no issue with that.”

“Sexuality is still a point of contention for many in this century…”

“Trevor is a seventeen year old kid that before his death in an illegal fight was troubled and unhappy,” Trevor said. “He is happy now. Rene broke up with me and there is no reason at all for anyone to suspect that a teenager finding out a little more about himself is at all out of the ordinary. The fact that it’s with Philip is also totally understandable. I mean, look at him.”

Philip cleared his throat, flattered and a little embarrassed at Trevor’s declaration. “Trev, off point.” He looked up at MacLaren determinedly, “But he’s right. Trevor’s discovery of bisexuality is not breaking protocol, because technically only Trevor’s host knew the truth of his sexuality, and he isn’t here because he was so full of aggressive unhappiness that he got himself killed because he wouldn’t let go of a fight that was killing him. I know nothing about my hosts’ sexuality and honestly, I doubt it matters either way. If the Director didn’t want it or thought we were breaking protocol we would have been told to stop months ago.”

“Months ago?”

“We have been dating for several months and Trevor’s been sleeping here for weeks and we’ve been discreet enough that none of you had noticed,” Philip said. “We aren’t going to stop this, it isn’t breaking protocol.”

“There isn’t anything wrong with carrying on as we have been,” Trevor put in, “And our effectiveness at working together for missions has only improved over the last few months so you can’t say it will be bad for the team. Speaking of which, we finished that site hack you asked us to do last night and we were getting some sleep when you interrupted us…”

MacLaren interrupted again; “And if we had another incident like the bomb at Galston and the Director’s order for Trevor to complete Sandstorm’s mission? Would you risk our mission to save him again or vice versa?”

Philip glanced at Trevor and Trevor nodded at him to continue. “We aren’t going to prioritise each other over the mission. The mission is what we are here for. We are here for the future. But we are going to enjoy our lives along the way.”

“This is all of your second lives, boss, your last and my last,” Trevor said. “We are here for the mission but I see no reason why we can’t enjoy our lives and fall in love if we want to. Marcy has, you have. We can too.”

Philip turned to look at him again, surprised and absolutely elated. “You love me?” He asked.

Trevor twisted his wrist out of Philip’s hold to properly link their fingers and smiled at him a little coyly, “I thought that was obvious.”

Ignoring Philip practically glowing, MacLaren waved his hand around. “Alright, enough, I don’t think I am going to win here and I don’t have time for this. I have to get to work. I’m telling you now that I’m not happy about this. But if you two promise to not let this compromise the mission then I will allow it for now. The second you prioritise your relationship over the mission, hear otherwise from the Director or break a protocol then you are done.”

“Fine,” Philip agreed distractedly.

“Thanks boss,” Trevor gave MacLaren a wide, innocent smile, very different to his cold expression from ten minutes before.

MacLaren huffed, throwing his hands up in the air as he left.

Marcy hopped down from her stool, “I’m happy for you both,” she said genuinely. She knew what falling in love with someone in the 21st was like. She and David had only just properly reconciled after the Ingram incident and she had been looking a lot happier for it.

“Me too,” Carly agreed eventually, after eyeing their joined hands and the smile on Philip’s face. “You make a good couple,” she added, before following Marcy to the desk they had been working at.

Philip leant over to speak quietly to Trevor, “You nearly got us into even more trouble, talking back to the boss like that.”

“You’re as argumentative as I am," Trevor reminded him. "But yeah, sometimes I am old and stubborn and don’t like being told what to do.” Trevor kissed Philip’s cheek before letting go of Philip’s hand and getting up from the couch.

“I love you too, by the way,” Philip said suddenly, before Trevor could walk out of earshot.

Trevor spun on his heel and grinned at him, looking thrilled. “That’s good to hear, by the way." He teased. "So are you going to show me that programming you were talking about yesterday?”

Philip shook his head fondly and stood to follow Trevor to the computers and get back to the mission.

(The team eventually came around to the fact that Philip and Trevor were a couple, and the next time they were out on a mission and someone mistook MacLaren for Trevor’s dad Carly confirmed it, before introducing herself as MacLaren’s girlfriend, Marcy as MacLaren’s daughter, and Philip as Trevor’s boyfriend).

**Author's Note:**

> Still keeping my fingers crossed for a Season 3!
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
